Life and its many opportunities

I just received an unsolicited call from the local marketing manager of Diplomat Magazine (I think that is who he was and where he works – he wasn’t very clear on the phone). He gave me a pitch about how the magazine goes out to diplomats and he would like to do something with my firm. I had to ask him what he had in mind and he suggested doing a profile on my firm. I then asked him if this would be a paid advertisement and he said yes. He said I could even get a customer in America! My heart soared (ok, not really, I thought that line was really cheesy). I pointed out to him that the diplomatic community is not quite my target market. He seems to have realised his pitch wasn’t successful and suggested I may not be interested. I confirmed that and the call ended. I won’t get those precious minutes back.

Big tip if you are going to cold call someone: do your research and determine if your offer would even remotely appeal to the person you are calling. If you do your research and feel you have something to offer then at least have the brass ones to be more straightforward. Don’t try sell me on a half-baked pitch where I have to do the work or some script. You are the marketing person, market!